These beads are priced and sold as a set of 3, one is badly chipped
Tabular millefiori trade bead in amber and brick on dark blue 22x22mm, sadly this bead has a bad chip on the other side.
Small cylindrical bead matches the tabular one 20x10mm
Third bead used a murrini similar the other two except a final coating of green glass was added. The three rows of murrini are separated by a cane of red, white and blue, which could represent the Dutch or French flag depending on the orientation. More likely it was intended as French because most of the African colonies where the beads were sent were French speaking.
Millefiori, the Italian name for these colorful beads, means 1000 flowers
The beads are decorated with slices of glass canes created by, either bundling very thin glass tubes together to form the pattern and then fusing them, or encasing round, star or flower pattern canes in concentric layers of different colored glass.
The canes are sliced into murrini, which are laid out on a hot surface and the semi-molten glass cores of the beads are rolled over them, picking up the slices.
Made in Venice, Italy for the African trade mid-1800s to early 1900s
Choosing a selection results in a full page refresh.
Press the space key then arrow keys to make a selection.
